Three Montrealers accused of drowning four Shafia family members in Kingston, Ont., viewed the deceased as the "diseased limb on the family tree" that needed to be removed, a Crown attorney told jury members on Thursday.

In her closing remarks, Laurie Lacelle said Mohammad Shafia, 59, his wife, Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed Shafia, 21, were involved in the planning, execution and coverup of their murders.

"Their solution" Lacelle said of the accused,"was to remove the diseased limb entirely and prune the tree back to the good wood."

Lacelle went through the time before the deaths of the three Shafia sisters — Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti Shafia, 13 —and Rona Amir, Mohammad Shafia's first wife in a polygamous marriage. They were found drowned in a submerged Nissan in the Kingston Mills lock in eastern Ontario in June 2009.

Lacelle talked about the warnings that were allegedly given to Yahya from two family members about her husband's intention to kill Zainab. She did nothing, Lacelle said, because she already knew about the plan and was involved in it.

She also told the jury the Nissan was specifically purchased for the murder plot and bought a day before the trip.

Lacelle said that Mohammad Shafia's response that the car was purchased so Zainab would have a car to drive wasn't plausible because there were already plans for Zainab to marry another man so she would soon be out of the house.

"The purchase of the Nissan was part of the murder plan," Lacelle told the jury. "If the plan was to stage an accident that accounted for the deaths of four people, a car would have to be sacrificed, too."

Pieces of the family's Lexus SUV were found at the scene where the Nissan sedan plunged into the Rideau Canal on June 30, 2009.

Yahya's role

Lacelle spent a significant amount of time on Yahya's role in the alleged murder plot.

According to the Crown's theory, Yahya drove the women to the locks in the Nissan and waited there with them until Hamed and Mohammad Shafia returned from dropping the other children at a motel.

Yahya "stayed with them. Stayed at the scene. Kept them unsuspecting," Lacelle said during her closing statement.

"It is inconceivable that Tooba was at the scene — from the time they were alive waiting with her to the time the bodies were submerged in the canal — and wasn't a participant in the murder plan. If she hadn't agreed to participate in the plan or the cover up, then it couldn't have taken place," Lacelle said.

"That means she played a significant role in the murders."

Timeline issues

Lacelle also addressed the timeline issue that defence lawyers said proved the accused did not have enough time to commit the murders.

She said the accused had ample time — around an hour and 15 minutes, possibly longer — to drown the four women, put them in the car and push it into the water.

The defence's argument was largely based on data from traffic cameras in Montreal, which they said showed Hamed in the family's Lexus early on the morning of June 30.

Lacelle pointed out that the traffic camera only caught an image of a silver SUV, not a licence plate or anything that would identify it as belonging to Shafia.

"The highway footage is nothing more than a red herring," Lacelle said. "Don't be distracted by it."

She said Hamed could have left Kingston as late as 3:48 a.m. and still had time to get to Montreal by 6:48 a.m., when cellphone records indicated he received a call from his father, who was at the Kingston motel.

In her summation, Lacelle also reminded jury members that they don't have to know what happened or how it happened precisely to convict the three accused of first-degree murder.

"It should come as no surprise in a quadruple murder where the only witnesses are either dead or on trial, that there may be some holes," Lacelle said, calling the evidence "overwhelming and irrefutable."

"The Crown has proved all essential elements of the offence. You know this is not an accident. It was murder."

The trial was delayed Thursday because of a security issue. Security measures were beefed up, which include the use of metal detectors, for the duration of the trial, officials said.

On Friday, the judge will start his charge to the jury members, who will then begin their deliberations.

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Mohammad Shafia, centre, and his son Hamed Shafia, left, are led away from the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ont., Sunday, January 29, 2012, after being found guilty of first degree murder. (Graham Hughes, CP)
"We are not criminal, we are not murderer, we didn't commit the murder and this is unjust," Mohammad said after the verdict was announced.

Tooba Yahya pleaded with the court after the jury hearing the case reached a guilty verdict: "Your honourable justice, this is not just. I am not a murderer, and I am a mother, a mother." (Graham Hughes, CP)

Mohammad Shafia, front, Tooba Yahya, left, and Hamed Shafia, centre, are led from the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ont., Sunday, January 29, 2012, after being found guilty of first degree murder. CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
According to Judge Robert Maranger the crime was "cold-blooded" and resulted from a "twisted concept of honour."

"I'm not a killer," Mohammad Shafia said while under cross-examination.

"The weapon he had was his tongue," Dr. Mohammad Anwar Yaqubi said about Mohammad Shafia, his half brother. (photo: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)

"Expletives in Dari are very common," Nabi Misdaq (pictured), an Afghan culture expert , told the trial. (photo: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)

"My children did a lot of cruelty toward me," Mohammad Shafia said in December. (photo: CP)

"It was the night your family died, that's the last time you saw your kids [alive]," Crown Prosecutor Gerard Laarhuis said to Tooba Mohammad Yahya. "And that's meaningless?" (photo: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg)

"'Til now, I am upset with Hamed and my heart is bleeding," Yahya testified. "He should have told me." (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)

"I know this is not the place for my brother to be because he is not a murderer. There is no sin greater than murder - or to accuse somebody of it." Yaqubi said. (photo: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg)

"The case will be in your hands Wednesday, Jan. 25," Justice Robert Maranger (pictured) told the jury. (photo: HE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg)

"Rona, Zainab, Sahar and Geeti shared a bond of love for one another and they also shared another bond, the desperate desire to escape the Shafia household," said Crown attorney Laurie Lacelle. (Photo credit: CP)

"Hamed is guilty of being stupid, morally blameworthy, but other than that, he was not responsible for the girls' death, nor were his parents and (it's) time to put an end to this Kafkaesque 2 1/2 years they've been going through since their arrest," defence lawyer Patrick McCann told the jury.

"Shafia, Tooba and Hamed had decided that there was a diseased limb on their family tree," said Lacelle. "Their decision was to trim the diseased limb and prune the tree back to the good wood." (photo: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn)